Inertia Drives Concentration-Wave Turbulence in Swimmer Suspensions
We discover an instability mechanism in suspensions of self-propelled particles that does not involve active stress. Instead, it is driven by a subtle interplay of inertia, swimmer motility, and concentration fluctuations, through a crucial time lag between the velocity and the concentration field. The resulting time-persistent state seen in our high-resolution numerical simulations consists of self-sustained waves of concentration and orientation, transiting from regular oscillations to wave turbulence. We analyze the statistical features of this active turbulence, including an intriguing connection to the Batchelor spectrum of passive scalars.
Authors
- Navdeep Rana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4432-3982)
- Sriraṁ Ramaswamy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7726-8556)
- Prasad Perlekar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1120-0839)
- P. C. Jain (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0053-4969)
Institutions
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN)
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (DE)
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2024-10-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.158302
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Micro and Nano Robotics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.18
Funders
- Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council